Maybe this has to do with yoga being very directly about immortality, staying young forever, preserving the body (I think of yoga as a very ancient egypt kind of thing)... whereas any budo is kind of about the opposite, about embracing mortality, about understanding that our bodies are breaking down right now, etc.

Maybe it's easier to pay through the nose for something that delivers the promise of long, preserved life than it is to pay for something that is kind of specifically about death.

Which makes Starbucks Aikikai (or a Virginia Slims/MacDonalds-sponsored seminar) make more sense? Or is that too much?